Day 9 - Bye Bye FuZhong!

大家好! This is Cavon and Mira excited to tell everyone about our ninth day (last one digit day 🥹) in Taiwan. This morning began with another early 6:00 AM wakeup call before we all groggily made our way down for breakfast in our hotel. After some great food we all walked through the rain and Xiqian subway station to get to our bus and head over to FuZhong for our last day of exchange.

                                  

Once we got there, we were immediately greeted with a class that combined biology with English literature. Each of the students were split up into groups of four, and they presented on the different environments and habitats found within Taiwan. We learned how Taiwan has environments across almost every category—from tundra to sand dunes—and became familiarized with some of the wildlife in southern Taiwan (where we haven’t traveled to). But, the twist for this activity was that we were grading the Taiwanese students’ projects! Although some of us were harsh critics, I (Cavon) was very impressed with their English and even gave one group a 22/20 for amazing visual animations and fluent speaking. After the presentations, a small group of students were solving physics problems and asked for our help in solving the questions. Although their physics problems were written in unfamiliar technical Mandarin, we worked on it together and eventually solved a few! After ending the class and catching up on the Spurs vs. Knicks NBA finals game, we headed to the FuZhong photography class.

We first did an activity where their teacher gave us six different photos from Taiwan and asked which ones we thought were most “Taiwanese.” Then, she asked the FuZhong students the same question. I (Cavon) found it really interesting how the FuZhong students chose a completely different set of photos than our students. While most of us chose photos of Taipei 101 and Taiwanese motorcycle riders, the FuZhong students picked photos of Taiwanese elders holding flowers and children laughing. We have been in Taiwan for just 9 days while most of them have lived here their whole lives, and it was fascinating to see how those experiential differences between us translated into opinions and choices. Afterwards, we examined the work of some famous photographers who had captured specific aspects of life in Taiwan, including people, architecture, and even transformer trucks. Then, we participated in a 20 minute photo challenge where we walked around the school in groups of four and took photographs of different parts. As raindrops trickled down, our group took some beautiful photographs that captured a side of the school we had not seen before. A few of us brought DSLR cameras on the trip, and we used them to freeze and keep small parts of our time at FuZhong Highschool with us. Each group had a different focus and our group focused on the rain itself. We took photos of everything from wet handprints on the hallway walls to students trotting through the rain with umbrellas and then headed back to the auditorium to upload our photos. Each of our groups then shared our photos and the ideas behind them, and then, we met up with our FuZhong students for lunch!

At lunch, FuZhong graciously provided all the students with a wonderful bowl of rice, eggs, duck, and steamed vegetables. During lunch, the Poly students had the opportunity to talk more with the FuZhong students about their hobbies, interests, and daily life. For example I (Mira) got the opportunity to learn more about 补习班 also known as cram school, where students study different subjects after their regular school. Normally students keep learning and studying in cram school until around 10:00 PM and after all that learning they still have to do their actual school homework afterwards. On the brighter side my student and I got to talk about the night markets and their favorite Taiwanese foods to eat. 

After lunch everyone boarded back on the bus to take a combined field trip with the FuZhong students to the Taipei Confucius Temple. At the temple, we first watched two videos where we were introduced to Confucius and his teaching. In the videos we learned about the six arts that formed the core foundation of ancient Confucious education: rites/etiquette, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics. We also learned about the history of the temple. 

The first Confucius Temple was built in 1879 under the Qing Dynasty on WenWu street and the temple served as a center for Confucian rites and education. However, after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, Taiwan was ceded to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The Japanese troops occupied the temple and Confucious rites were stopped, many musical instruments used for rites were destroyed, and the temple gradually fell to despair. Eventually the original temple was torn down in 1907 to make room for a Japanese school. The temple that stands today is a reconstruction of the original temple built in 1939 through donated land and donations from devout followers of Confucious teachings. 

During our tour of the temple our tour guide pointed out many different points of architecture and art that held symbolic significance in Taiwanese culture. For example, did you know that ancient Taiwan had a mythological unicorn? It is called a Qilian, an animal that is typically depicted as a chimera with two horns, a scaly dragon-like body, and an ox's tail. We found this astonishing animal on the inside of the Wanren Gongqian wall/Supreme Wall of Knowledge that signifies Confucius's wisdom and knowledge. The unicorn represents benevolence and peaceful prosperity. We also had the opportunity to pray at the temple for Confucius to bless us with good grades. I (Mira) specifically wished for good grades junior year! We ended our tour by stopping by the blessing room to get blessed calligraphy cards. For example, I (Mira) got a card that read “may all your wishes come true” in Chinese. 

As our temple field trip came to an end our time with the FuZhong students also sadly came to an end. Everyone was hugging, waving, and taking photos with each other before the two groups of students parted ways and got on different buses. 

After a great history lesson it was time to have some more fun with… Karaoke! Everyone was really excited to get to the private room full of Taiwan Costco pizza, chicken wings, fries, chicken strips, onion rings, zong zi, and the only healthy option: fruit. Once we figured out how to work the machine it was full steam ahead. The song queue quickly lined up with popular songs like “That’s What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction, “A Whole New World” from Aladdin, “Yellow” by Coldplay, “Beat It” by Michael Jackson, and so many more. The two hours of loud speakers and flashing lights were a nice fun break from walking around all day. A fan favorite to end the night out was “Hotel California” by Don Henley which reminded us all of home. In the google drive folders there are some videos of our wonderful singing so make sure to take a look. 

After singing our hearts out, with raspy voices we completed our night debrief sharing what kinds of goals we completed so far on our trip and what we hope to accomplish with four days left. We hope everyone is safe and enjoying sunny California. Unfortunately the forecast looks like it will be raining in Taipei for the rest of the trip☹️but at least it won’t be too hot 🙂. See everyone soon!